


The Lazy Red & Sharp Blue

by silver_cyn



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-09 13:12:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12888621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silver_cyn/pseuds/silver_cyn
Summary: Red and Blue is what they tell him to call them, but Fushimi does one better. He calls them the Lazy Red and Sharp Blue.





	The Lazy Red & Sharp Blue

**Author's Note:**

> No money is being, or ever will be, made from this. Purely for my own pleasure. Pretty much my [K] version of Hozier’s music video “From Eden.” 
> 
> Also, I’m sorry Fushimi.

Think about aspects of your happiest memories.

_Red hair blowing wildly in the wind. The glint of sunlight off a pair of glasses. Long graceful fingers gripping the steering wheel. Smoke from the last embers of a cigarette._

Where are you?

_Driving in a beat up volkswagen down a desert highway. Too hot, too dry, but it doesn’t matter because -_

Are you alone? Or are you with someone?

 _Not someone, someones. To his left, there’s the man with the red hair and gold eyes. He’s got the chair reclined half-way back, and his dirty boots are propped on the dashboard. Look, he’s yawning again. How boring, Fushimi thinks, but at least it’s_ _~~safe~~ warm _ _next to him._

 _Fushimi looks to his right to the other man driving the car. His hair’s so dark, it looks black until the light hits it just right and you can see shimmers of blue swimming beneath it. His violet eyes are sharp behind his glasses, his tongue even sharper. This man looks at the sleeping lump beside Fushimi, clicks his tongue and calls him lazy. Whatever. He's batted their hands apart more than once on this trip._  
  
_Those intense eyes find him, and the man’s face softens noticeably. It makes Fushimi’s heart feel warm, which is weird and disgusting. Fushimi clicks his tongue without thinking, turns away with a huff at the delighted grin that earns him._

What are their names?

 _Red and Blue is what they tell him to call them, but Fushimi does one better. He calls them the Lazy Red and Sharp Blue._  
  
Tell me more about them.

_They’re stupid and confusing. They fight all the time. It scares him at first until he notices the mischievous light in Lazy Red’s eyes and the smirk on Sharp Blue’s face. It’s a game to them, he realizes, a stupid game, but harmless._

_Lazy Red sleeps way too much -whether it’s in the car, in the restaurant, on the couch or even on Sharp Blue, no place is safe. The only time he’s not sleeping is when he’s eating, arguing with Sharp Blue, or doing...other stuff with the man.  Fushimi tries really hard not to think about that “other stuff” and strongly considers taking up prayer in the hope he never has to see it either._

And the other?

_Sharp Blue’s no better. In fact, he’s more infuriating than Lazy Red. At least that guy’s asleep most of the time, but Sharp Blue never shuts up and gets off on constantly teasing him. Plus, he’s got a weird obsession with puzzles._

Puzzles?  
_  
Yes, God, he’s obsessed with puzzles, and not the normal puzzles for normal people. More like the 1000 - 5000 piece puzzles. Sharp Blue can put them together in a matter of hours, but he likes to get him and Lazy Red to help. Actually, Fushimi blames Lazy Red for this one. He hates those puzzles as much as Fushimi does, but he still buys them for Sharp Blue. Like, seriously, stop buying the man puzzles._

How did you meet them?

_Fushimi tries to hold the memory back, but it slithers out anyway. The dark room, the bite of metal against his neck and wrists. He’s alone, but not for long._

_He hears footsteps approaching in the dark and his heart skips two beats before nosediving into panic mode. His senses lash out to take in every bit of information-the loud beating of his heart, the smell of dank and dampness, the rough scrape of the wall gouging into his back, the taste of blood in his mouth as he bites his tongue to keep from making a sound._ ~~_because it's always worse when he cries out_ ~~

_Then light, too bright and in his eyes. He squints, the light shifts, and he sees them for the first time-the Lazy Red and Sharp Blue. He imagines the shock on their faces match the one on his, minus the mind-numbing terror still echoing through his blood. They stare at him and then look at each other. They don’t say a word, but Fushimi knows they’ve reached some kind of decision when they turn their unnerving focus back on him._

_Lazy Red drops to a crouch, and with Sharp Blue bent at the waist behind him, they both manage to meet Fushimi at eye level.  
_

_“Hey kid. Do you want to come with us?” Lazy Red is lazy even with his speech. His words are irritatingly slow, but still too fast for Fushimi’s shocked mind to comprehend at first. Then it clicks, like a game piece against a board, and Fushimi doesn’t even hesitate._

How did they make you feel? 

_Terrified._

So, you were afraid of them at first. What changed?

_Fushimi doesn’t know how many days and nights pass with them. It all blurs together. He accepts their offerings of food, new clothes, and other things with wary skepticism. He's learned from painful experience that nothing in life is free, nothing comes without a form of payment sooner or later. It’s hard though. They’re persistent in wearing him down. Odd to say that because the Lazy Red doesn’t actually say much, but he lets Fushimi do whatever he wants and never gets upset with him._

_Sharp Blue is the opposite, always talking and buying Fushimi random gifts. Even more annoying is how Sharp Blue knows what he likes without Fushimi ever saying a word. He too is never ruffled by Fushimi’s prickly demeanor. Sharp Blue provides structure and routine, making sure they eat, clean up, get to bed. He’s super annoying, but somehow it works though Fushimi will bite off his own tongue first before admitting that to the man._

_Most importantly,_ _the _ _most important thing, they don’t touch him. At all._

 _Then it happens. They’re in another hotel for the night, and per usual, he gets his own bed. It’s big and warm, and great... right up until the nightmare, the nightmare that's worse than usual. No, let's be honest. Just the first nightmare where he can't hide his reaction from them. Back in that room, and_ _he’s_ _there too with a smile on his face. Smiling as he breaks Fushimi’s glasses, smiling as he strangles Fushimi’s cat, smiling as he pulls at the chains, smilingsmilingsmiling and-_

_He wakes in a pool of his own piss and sweat, and he can't seem to breathe properly. Blindly he reaches out, grabs something solid, holds on tight._

" _Fushimi-kun. Breathe in. Out. Again.” The voice is soothingly steady as it repeats those four small words. Fushimi complies more by instinct than anything else._

_Inhale. Exhale._

" _You’re not in that room anymore. Breathe in. Out. Again.”_

_Inhale. Exhale._

_You’re safe with us. Breathe in. Out. Again.”_

_Inhale. Exhale._

_"And, if anyone tries to hurt you-”_

_"I’ll kill them.”_

_He’s startled enough to open his eyes. He notices Sharp Blue’s not surprised (or disturbed) by Lazy Red’s words._

_“I was going to say ‘we’ll protect you’ but that works too,” Sharp Blue says with a shrug._

_For all the ways Lazy Red and Sharp Blue are different, in this, they are the same.  Both have a fire inside, one hot, the other cold, but equally destructive. It’s the kind of fire that can’t be tamed or put out. Only released. He should be afraid, but for the first time in his life, he feels something close to safe._

_Gradually, his heartbeat finds its normal rhythm again. Fushimi eventually realizes he’s clutching Lazy Red's hand and immediately lets go. The need to clean up soon wins out over his desire to stay with them. He takes a shower and when he comes back the soiled sheets have been tossed to the floor. He’s in their bed now, Lazy Red and Sharp Blue sitting up on either side of him like sentinels. Lazy Red reaches out a hand, catches Fushimi’s eye first, and at his small nod, places a hand on Fushimi’s head._

_Another look passes over his head and then Sharp Blue starts to talk. He knows a lot of random facts. It’s boring but relaxes Fushimi all the same. The demons are still too close to the edges of his consciousness for Fushimi to find any rest that night, but for the first time, he’s not alone in his watch._

What other good moments can you recall with them?

_Eating at dine-ins. Reading with Sharp Blue. Watching movies with Lazy Red.  A shower of bills raining down and through the gently falling notes he sees Lazy Red and Sharp Blue kiss. Something pings his heart, painfully tender and sweet. He throws a book at them to make it stop, feels immensely satisfied at the cursing and sighing that follows._

So you learned to trust them, and from there, relationships were built.

_It never lasts though. He knew what they did for a living, of course he did. All those rich houses they went to, the things they collected- a gold lighter encrusted with diamonds. A necklace with sapphires the size of quail eggs. Safes, in the closet, behind paintings and secret walls, different places, but all found and liberated of their valuables and money._

_He also didn’t miss the gun Lazy Red kept in his back waistband, the hushed conversations they had late into the night, or the eyes that checked the mirror when they were on the road. No, Fushimi didn’t miss any of it, but he just hadn’t cared. What did such a thing matter, when he’d finally found something good? He really should have remembered, nothing good lasts.  Not for him at least._

_The last stop. After this, the plan's to meet up with the rest of the crew._

_"The crew?” Fushimi asks, fiddling with the gloves on his hands._

_“Yeah, don’t look like that kid. They're family. They don’t bite,” Lazy Red says._  
  
_"Yes, that vice belongs to you alone, doesn’t it? Look what you did to my neck, barbarian!” Sharp Blue complains, looking at said neck in one of the hallway mirrors.  
_  
_“Is this show and tell? I got plenty from you to share.”_

  _Fushimi ignores their bickering, and secretly wishes they could ignore this “family” just as easily. He doesn’t need to meet anyone else. He’s just fine with Lazy Red and Sharp Blue._

_He wanders up the stairs, into a bedroom but his footsteps stop suddenly at the sight in front of him._

_Blood. It’s everywhere. Smeared against the walls, on the bed, on the... bodies..._

_Lazy Red swiftly moves in front of him.  
_

_“You got enough nightmares, Fushimi. Wait here, all right? Munakata, get your ass over here!”_

_Fushimi’s momentarily distracted, hearing Lazy Red break the cardinal rule. He’s not the only one._

_"How many times do I have to tell you-” Sharp Blue cuts off abruptly when he sees the room, and quickly takes Lazy Red’s place in front of him. He doesn't know why they’re trying to protect him. He’s been through worse. The fact that he wants to puke his guts out on the bloodied carpet means absolutely nothing._

_"Two bodies. Fuck, this asshole did a number on them. Bodies not even cold yet.”_

_"Suoh!”_

_Sharp Blue drags him to the ground, the spray of bullets overhead dancing like lethal fireworks. He can't see, not with the other man covering him like a guarded steel fence._

_Fushimi peeks through the gates of Sharp Blue's limbs, sees Lazy Red tackle a man in black. He’s never seen him move so fast, or so viciously._

_The body over him jerks, and is abruptly pulled away from him. Fushimi turns, chokes out a gasp at the sight of a second intruder looping a garret around Sharp Blue's neck. He just manages to get his fingers beneath the cord even as the other man tries to drag him away. Sharp Blue slams his head back, cracking the man’s nose. The cord loosens, and when it does, a swift elbow to the face, followed by a kick to the temple drops his opponent._

_Fushimi glances between the blood Lazy Red casually wipes off on his jeans, and the cold indifference on Sharp Blue's face as he steps over the unconscious body. Somewhere farther away, glass breaks, voices sound-angry and frantic, signaling that company is very much on the way._

_“Fushimi!”_

_The dark spots gathering at the edge of his vision scatter at Sharp Blue’s call. His face is hard, but his eyes are calm._

_“Breathe in. Out. Again. I need to help Suoh. You know what to do.”_

_Sharp Blue holds his gaze then flicks it to his right where the bathroom door hangs wide open. Knowledge finally pushes past the panic enough for Fushimi to nod his response.  As he starts to close the door, he sees Lazy Red and Sharp Blue draw their guns and take up positions.  Their attention is on the door, neither glancing back at him._

_“We may not get out of here without taking some lives,” Lazy Red says. He doesn’t seem particularly upset about that, Fushimi notes with a scowl._

_“Well, if the situation calls for it, that’s all right too,” Sharp Blue clicks the safety off his own gun._

_Fushimi can hear shouting from the hallway now._

_“Close the door, Fushimi,” Lazy Red says, and the smile on his face clenches something in his stomach._

_Fushimi slams the door shut._

  _~_

_“If something goes wrong, call the police.” Sharp Blue had said one night._

_"Isn't that counterintuitive?” Fushimi ignored that stupidly proud grin. Lazy Red just rolled his eyes._

_“They’ll at least make sure you get out safe,” Sharp Blue said._

_“What about you guys?”_

_Sharp Blue and Lazy Red had shared one of their customary smirks. It’s only now Fushimi wishes he had pressed them for an answer._

_~_

Remember those happy moments. Remember the trust you established that allowed you to open up, to start those relationships that led to those happy times.

_Gunshots again. More shouting. How many others were there?_

_“Call the police, eh? Easy for him to say,” Fushimi mumbles._

_He doesn't know what's going on. If he calls, and they have it under control, Fushimi risks them going to jail._

_But if he doesn't call, and one of them gets killed…_

So, what happened next?

_The sound of sirens shouldn’t be more terrifying than the sound of gunshots. How many times has Fushimi wished to see those red and blue lights, to hear those authoritative shouts for surrender? Where were they when he really needed them? And now, now when he has something that matters, the universe naturally conspires to fuck him over._

C’mon, monkey. Give credit where credit’s due.

_Fushimi inhales sharply. Fear is an icy hand that holds him in place, and catches his tongue tight._

What’s with that look? Don’t act like I ever did anything wrong to you. I just treated you like the walking mistake you are.

_His body, why can’t he move? His throat, why can’t he breathe?_

Can you blame me? I mean, look at your two buddies. They were the first to try and do right by you, and what do you do? You shit on them.

_Bile in his stomach, pressure on his chest._

You ruined their lives.

_ThumpThumpThumpThumpthump_

That’s what you are, monkey, a life ruiner! That’s why they’re gone! 

_ThumpThumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpTHUMPTHUMPthumpthumpTHUMPthump-_

Hell, though, no matter what happened to them, they’re better off. Because anything, absolutely anything is better than being with-

 ~

Fushimi wakes with a harsh, ragged cry, sheets and blankets near strangling him. He flings himself from the bedsheets, falling to the floor in the process. He doesn't notice the scrape of skin as he scrambles to press his back against the nearest corner.

Even as his heart pounds turbulently in his chest, the calm threads of a familiar mantra weave around his mind, tighten enough to keep his sanity in place.

Breathe in. Out. Again.

Breathe in. Out. Again.

He repeats this until he’s able to breathe without gasping for air. He repeats this as he tosses his sweat soaked t-shirt to the floor, showers and puts on fresh clothes.

He turns the lights on, clicks on the television, let's the background noise play.  

Opening his window, he sits on the sill, and lights a cigarette. He takes a long drag. The air warms his lungs even if it can’t do much for his heart. Just two more drags, before he stubs it out. He really can't stand the things, only just...

_Breathe in._

_Out._

_Again._

Fushimi knows that man can’t harm him anymore. He’s gone.

But so are Suoh and Munakata.

And on nights like these, he’s not sure who he hates more.  

 

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is always appreciated. Also, I'm thankful for all the K fandom discussions still taking place. Really helps one stay motivated with writing. :)


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